Personal Brilliance Blog

This article caught my eye. It's about major college football coaches dealing with the "new" technology of using video conferencing to talk to recruits.

For early adopters of innovation it's important to realize that there are people currently struggling with technology from a few years ago.

A brilliant view on the Cognitive Surplus and how we spend our time from Clay Shirkyon author of Here Comes Everybody in his post Gin, Television, and Social Surplus.

Clay contrasts time on the internet with time watching TV but he goes much deeper. In Personal Brilliance, we teach that every bit of input is valuable to the innovation process. When watching TV you are resting but something you see may spark an input to an idea. Without purposefully doing so, you are multi-tasking. He makes a very important point - "It is better to do something than to do nothing." And if participation is fostered more the better.

Clay argues that connectivity and participation is the next big thing. What do you think?

Join me as I interview Product Design expert Jim Jacobs. (part 2 of 4) about how Jim uses the Personal Brilliance catalyst Curiosity in his successful life. I have some ideas on Curiosity for you as well.

Jim Jacobs is the founder of the Savvy Consortium, which helps product developers learn and integrate elements of the lean Toyota Product Innovation, Design & Development System in their product development organizations.

Jim's experience includes 14 new product launches in 15 years working for large and small manufacturing organizations. Jim worked for several famous inventors and engineering leaders from which he learned to live and breathe innovation.

Some of this episode's highlights:

• The key questions to ask in the design process
• LAMDA - Look, Ask, Model, Discuss, Act
• The most important question
• Learning as part of the design process
• The paradox of wonder and doubt

Click the ODEO icon to go to the main Podcast page for Personal Brilliance - Up Close and Practical. Subscribe via iTunes, or subscribe via RSS.

The New Yorker, following the announcement that Toyota has sold more cars in the first quarter than GM, explores the approach used by Toyota and questions the traditional definition of innovation.

"It rejects the idea that innovation is the province of an elect few; instead, it's taken to be an everyday task for which everyone is responsible."

This tracks with our concept that innovation starts at the bottom. Only when all of the people, possessing a habit of innovation (Personal Brilliance) come together can an organization be considered innovative.

In this month's Personal Brilliance - Up Close and Practical Podcast we discuss the Toyota system for product design innovation.

Join me as I interview Product Design expert Jim Jacobs. (part 1 of 4) about how Jim uses the Personal Brilliance catalyst Awareness in his successful life. I have some ideas on Awareness for you as well.

Jim Jacobs is the founder of the Savvy Consortium, which helps product developers learn and integrate elements of the lean Toyota Product Innovation, Design & Development System in their product development organizations.

Jim's experience includes 14 new product launches in 15 years working for large and small manufacturing organizations. Jim worked for several famous inventors and engineering leaders from which he learned to live and breathe innovation.

Some of this episode's highlights:

• An overview of the Toyota design system
• Success defined for the designer
• How identifying multiple solutions to a problem benefits the process
• The concept of Go See - Going to the source

Click the ODEO icon to go to the main Podcast page for Personal Brilliance - Up Close and Practical. Subscribe via iTunes, or subscribe via RSS.

In this month's podcast, (first episode should be up soon) I talk with product design expert Jim Jacobs of the Savvy Consortium. We discuss the Toyota model for new product development.

The major philosophy is that very early, using the Personal Brilliance catalysts Awareness, Curiosity, and Focus, designers come up with and test multiple solutions to the problem at hand.

The fourth catalyst, Initiative is important but the action early on is about planning not just being busy.

This conflicts with the managers who want to see progress. Negotiating with these managers and protecting the design process is paramount. The paradox is that going slow early allows a faster, and better solution.

The Sales Bible NEW EDITION
by Jeffrey Gitomer

Jeffrey Gitomer has completely overhauled his best selling Sales Bible with this new edition. This book has been successful for over 15 years because it gives easy-to-implement, real-world answers that you can take out onto the street a minute after you read them, and turn the ideas into money.

This book is for you if you are in anyway associated with sales, and really, who isn't?

I love Jeffrey's writing - punchy and irreverent with very useful lists like the 10.5 Commandments of Sales Success. But mostly, I like to observe how his brain works. He's brilliant. So much so, that he was a guest on my Personal Brilliance - Up Close and Practical podcast. Here are links for Jeffrey's four episodes that correspond to the four catalysts of Personal Brilliance:

Awareness
Curiosity
Focus
Initiative

If you order the Sales Bible today, you will be getting much more than a book. You will receive hundreds of dollars worth of downloadable e-books, white papers, articles, audio MP3s, video MP4s, reports and chapters of best-selling books being offered by 40 top experts in a variety of related fields - including me.

Purchase the book on Amazon. Then go to the special Gitomer site to access your bonuses.

Don The Idea Guy posted about Awareness on The Duct Tape Marketing Blog. Add your comments to the conversation.

To get to know Don better, check out my podcast interviews with him on Personal Brilliance - Up Close and Practical.

Awareness

Curiosity

Focus

Initiative

Join me as I interview Serial Entrepreneur Wil Schroter. (part 4 of 4) about how Wil uses the Personal Brilliance catalyst Initiative in his successful life. I have some ideas on Initiative for you as well.

Wil Schroter is the author of Go Big or Go Home and founder of The Go Big Network. Wil is proudly a serial entrepreneur. He teaches the process through his syndicated column, which is in front f over 4 million professionals in 42 major markets. Wil is brilliant of course but most importantly he has a proven track record of taking an idea and turning it into a viable company that creates value.

At 19 in the dawn of the Internet era Wil started a web development company called Blue Diesel and quickly moved it to $65 million per year in billings. He sold Blue Diesel to In Chord Communications, founded a few more companies, picked up some entrepreneurial awards along the way, joined the company Swapalease as CEO, and currently has launched The Go Big Network.

Some of this episode's highlights:

• Great ideas without initiative???
• Don't confuse great companies with great ideas
• Can you pull it off is the real question
• Sustainability
• The advantage of staying broke
• The role of discipline
• When to seek investment and the best time to ask for money
• A case study of how the innovative entrepreneur thinks through an idea

Click the ODEO icon to go to the main Podcast page for Personal Brilliance - Up Close and Practical. Subscribe via iTunes, or subscribe via RSS.

Last Month's survey asked you to rank how often the barriers to Curiosity come up for you. The curiosity barriers are:

• Apathy or indifference
• Desire to avoid "what is" or "what may be"
• Dogmatic belief that you "know" is true
• Fear of the unknown
• Insecurity or feeling of inadequacy
• Myth that an answer or better approach can't be found

Learn more about each barrier and tools to overcome them in chapter 9 of Personal Brilliance. We asked you to tell us, for each barrier, how often this is an issue for you. The results are informative.

• 40% of respondents say that Dogmatic Beliefs are a barrier most of the time. This is common primarily because of religious teachings and our upbringing which have instilled certain belief systems that we are taught not to question. Belief systems are a coping mechanism that helps us be more efficient with the routine life choices we face, a good thing. But, if we train ourselves not to ask questions and carry that over to significant areas of our lives we can limit ourselves.
• 30% of respondents say that Insecurity or feeling of inadequacy is a barrier most of the time. Again, our history and upbringing come into play. There is nothing more limiting than lower than normal self-esteem. This is a critical barrier that when overcome can result in significant success.
• Avoidance and fear of the unknown were also significant causes of a lack of curiosity.

Thank you for your responses. The surveys really help us plan the content that will be most beneficial to you.

Please answer the April survey that analyzes Focus barriers. Click here.

Join me as I interview Serial Entrepreneur Wil Schroter. (part 3 of 4) about how Wil uses the Personal Brilliance catalyst Focus in his successful life. I have some ideas on Focus for you as well.

Wil Schroter is the author of Go Big or Go Home and founder of The Go Big Network. Wil is proudly a serial entrepreneur. He teaches the process through his syndicated column, which is in front f over 4 million professionals in 42 major markets. Wil is brilliant of course but most importantly he has a proven track record of taking an idea and turning it into a viable company that creates value.

At 19 in the dawn of the Internet era Wil started a web development company called Blue Diesel and quickly moved it to $65 million per year in billings. He sold Blue Diesel to In Chord Communications, founded a few more companies, picked up some entrepreneurial awards along the way, joined the company Swapalease as CEO, and currently has launched The Go Big Network.

Some of this episode's highlights:

• Attention span - details to big picture
• Why you have to understand the little details
• Reacting to trends and patterns takes focus
• When to bring in help after start-up and the best technique
• The concept of going big

Click the ODEO icon to go to the main Podcast page for Personal Brilliance - Up Close and Practical. Subscribe via iTunes, or subscribe via RSS.

A step to be copied by other states?

Ohio Governor Strickland on Thursday said he signed an executive order that creates the Barbara Warner Workplace Domestic Violence Policy, named after an Ohio Department of Health employee who was a victim of domestic violence and later killed in 1997 by her husband.

Under the new policy, state agencies are required to post a list of resources for workers, change personnel policies if needed, adjust workers' duties or assignments when domestic-violence issues arise, grant leave requests for victims and take action against workers identified as perpetrators. Actions can include contacting law enforcement and firing the employee.

Agencies also are barred from disciplining or discriminating against employees deemed domestic abuse victims or survivors for acts resulting from a domestic-abuse situation, or disclosing information to other workers beyond the extent necessary.

Donate to your local domestic violence shelter today!

http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/
stories/2008/04/14/daily27.html?f=et58&ana=e_du